Speech #890175356

I would like to complete my statement before yielding. Since the beginning of civilization the world has always had refugees. It has had refugees from natural calamities such as earthquakes. flood. and drought. It has had refugees because of war. famine. and epidemics. It has had refugees fleeing from political and religious persecution. As civilization has advanced. the world began to have special compassion for. and to take special care of. those unfortunate people who for one reason or another were driven from their homes and forced to start life anew elsewhere. The United States has never created refugees. We have always harbored them. But today. in the State of Mississippi. we are creating refugeeshungry. homeless. and jobless refugees. They were not created by war or famine or any of the other classic causes. They are refugees because of a carefully calculated conspiracy being waged against them by the State of Mississippi. Some of these refugees have left the State to crowd the already intolerable black ghettos of our major northern cities. But others remain homelessactually homelessin their native State. Before overproduction of farm products. especially cotton. and the introduction of efficient farm machinery. every Negro hand was needed in the Mississippi Delta.